Wrap-around article carriers are commonly designed to have ends which are either partially or entirely open. In either case the carriers must be provided with means for preventing the articles from falling out the ends. Beverage cans, for example, are held in place partly by the tension applied by the carrier blank being wrapped very tightly about them and by the engagement of the top and bottom flanges of the cans with the edges of cutouts in the side panels of the carrier through which the flanges of the can extend. This design is facilitated by the fact that cans have substantially flat tops and bottoms which are of substantially the same diameter as the body of the can. Even if, despite these design precautions, the cans are somehow dislodged and fall out the end of a carrier, the potential damage to the cans and to people in the vicinity of the accident is minimal, since the cans will normally remain intact, suffering no more damage than perhaps some dents or depressions.
Bottles are more difficult to retain in open-ended carriers than cans due to their shape. Even though cutouts may be provided in the side panels of a carrier to receive the heel portions of bottles, the variable contour of bottles due to their tapered or necked configuration makes it difficult to apply the carrier wrapper as tightly as in the case of cans. The problem is further magnified by the fact that for reasons of safety there is an even greater need to prevent bottles from escaping from their carrier due to the greater potential hazard resulting from broken glass and spilled beverage.
This problem has been recognized in the past, resulting in a number of different ways of retaining bottles in place. Openings are often provided in the top panel of a carrier through which bottle necks extend, and bottle neck retainer flaps or tabs are sometimes provided in conjunction with the openings to hold the bottle necks more firmly in place. In addition, partial end panels extending down from the top panel are sometimes provided. These features, however, do not prevent movement of the bottoms of the bottles out the open ends of the carrier. Moreover, due to the comparative slack fit of bottle wrappers compared to the tight fit of can wrappers, heel cutouts cannot be relied on to prevent the bottoms of bottles from moving toward the end of the carrier when subjected to the severe forces often encountered in use.
Partial end panels extending up from the bottom panel have been provided to function as bottle retainers, as have corner end gusset panels or flaps. These measures are not entirely satisfactory, however, because they require extra material to be used, making the carrier more costly to produce. Moreover, the extra retention provided by corner gusset panels is primarily adjacent the side panels, where retention means in the form of heel cutouts normally already exist. What is needed is a retention means which is effective for portions of bottles remote from the side panels of a carrier, such as adjacent portions of the end bottles in adjacent rows of bottles. It would also be advantageous if the retention means does not require the carrier blank to be larger than normal.